Gensokyo Railway Series 11 (Engines and Youkai)
by Pergold
Summary: Depending on who you ask, youkai can be helpful or downright dangerous. But one youkai in particular is causing all sorts of trouble in Gensokyo and by extension, its railway.
1. Prologue

Things had been going well for the Gensokyo Railway, the trains ran on time, the extension to Mayohiga was being built, and everyone was busy. Until something happened, the signals had started to change by themselves. At first Nitori thought that this was a mechanical fault and the signals that were affected needed fixing. Then the signal started switching again, sometimes as trains were going by them. While most of the accidents were averted, other things started to get "inverted". Trains started running in reserve, turntables moving in opposite movements, which made the bigger engines late for their trains.

"There is something up going on." said Nitori during a meeting.

"Maybe there's something... _down_." said Yukari, back to her mysterious self.

"I don't like where this is going." one of the Kappa Valley representatives said.

"Whoever or whatever is doing this needs to stop!" the recent events had been a trigger for Nitori.

"Construction had to stop on the Mayohiga extension!"

"Ask Reimu, she'll know who's been doing this." said the Scarlet Controller.

When Reimu was asked about who was doing this, she groaned.

"Dammit! Seija is at it again!"

"Isn't she the one who had the Miracle Mallet?" asked Nitori.

"Yes." grunted Reimu.

"She also robbed my shrine and I wasn't happy about it."

"Do you think you can find where she is?" asked Nitori.

"Yes, I'll go deal with her."

Reimu went back inside to have a stiff drink before going out and having to deal with Seija Kijin yet again.


	2. Ichihiro's Runaway

The engines had been recently inconvenienced by the various inversions going on.

"The signals switch and I either stop or run into Kenta's goods train!" gripped Hiroto.

"I go backwards even when my driver doesn't touch my reverser! Sometimes I can only go forward _with only_ my reverser!" complained Akemi.

"The points are always set against me! Even when the signal says they aren't!" protested Kenta.

"Surely its not all that bad." said Ichihiro.

"Its because you tank engines can go either way without issue." Hiroto explained.

"I already know that. It's only a faulty signal." Ichihiro replied.

"Then _all_ the signals are _faulty_!" said Kenta.

"And all the points are too!" put in Akemi.

The next day, Ichihiro had to take a train of medical goods to Eientei. He was coupled up and soon made his way to the mainline. He was going up Hiroto's hill went he felt himself go backwards down the hill.

"What's happening driver, this train isn't that heavy!" said Ichihiro.

"Don't worry." said his driver, applying the reverser.

Soon Ichihiro was going back up the hill, when he got up to the hill,he stopped so the brakes could be pinned down. His driver and firewoman were talking with the guard when Ichihiro started to move down the hill.

"You put on the brakes, right?" asked the firewoman.

"Yes I did. I even put the regulator down so I don't know why this train is moving!" said the driver.

The guard ran back to the brake van and had luckily jumped on before the train gained more momentum. Suddenly the trucks felt heavy and Ichihiro was pushed down the hill.

"Help! Help!" yelled Ichihiro as gained speed.

A nearby signal was set to danger and as Ichihiro ran by, the signal changed. The guard set up the brakes in the brake van, but a voice said.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

The voice revealed itself to be a youkai and threw the guard out of the break van. Ichihiro was now speeding down the mainline. Word of a runaway train soon spread quickly and all the signals down the line were set to 'danger'. But the points remained unchanged, Hiroto was waiting by a signal when Ichihiro was coming down the other end of the same line. Ichihiro shut his eyes, Hiroto tried to move backwards but was afraid of accidentally moving forwards. The signalwoman changed the points and nearly broke the lever doing so.

"That was a close one, eh Hiroto." said Hiroto's driver.

A magician with a pointy hat was riding a broom besides Ichihiro's train, it wasn't long until she got to Ichihiro's cab when she jumped in. She opened the regulator and disabled the brakes. This caused Ichihiro to give the trucks a big bump and knocked the youkai in the brake van down.

"Are you trying to steal me?" asked Ichihiro.

"No, _da ze_." she said.

"I'm looking for someone, I think she might be on your train."

The train soon felt light again and the magician brought Ichihiro back down to a stop. Ichihiro pulled onto a siding where Nitori and Reimu were waiting.

"Thanks Marisa." said Reimu.

"You've prevented a serious accident." said Nitori.

"No problem, _da ze_." Marisa the magician responded.

The two walked up and down the train, checking the trucks and vans. Reimu heard a door slam coming from the break van.

"She might be there!" she yelled.

By the time Marisa, Reimu, and Nitori got to the break van. The youkai had already left.

"Don't worry Reimu, we'll get her next time." said Nitori.

"I need a drink." said Reimu with a serious tone.

"Me too." joked Ichihiro.

Marisa, Nitori, and Ichihiro laughed. All the while Reimu keeping a stern face, she wondered if Suika could let her borrow her drinking gourd.


	3. Danmaku Duels

A youkai incident was well underway. The trains had become late, even later with Hiroto wanting to stop and seeing the danmaku.

"We'll see it later, we have to keep moving!" Hiroto's driver would always tell him.

The signal and the engine's directional movement had stopped inverting themselves, which made the engines feel better about the situation, but they still were unhappy with the schedule changes due to the increased youkai activity.

Ichihiro stayed busy though, as Eientei passenger trains had a higher priority due to the safety and health of the humans. But Ichihiro felt ill and Shiro had to take some of his trains.

Most youkai have to ability to fly and thus fight with their spell cards in the air. However, sometimes they fly close to the ground and would fight on the tracks, usually this made trains late. Shiro knew when to stop when they do start fighting on track, but he was tasked with a slow goods train. Ahiru pulled Ani and Kurarberu to Eientei that day. Ahiru was going along when he spotted two youkai fighting on the tracks, he whistled.

"Get out of the way!" he yelled.

But it was no good. His driver applied the brakes but it was too late, he ran into one of the youkai. She had the wind knocked out of her, his driver helped her into the train after the youkai complained of pain in her ribs.

"You should watch where you are going!" said the other youkai.

"You shouldn't be having duels on the tracks!" said Ahiru, angrily.

"We fight with our spell cards wherever we choose."

"You can do it in the woods, but not on the tracks. We don't stop on a dime you know!"

Ahiru took finished his trip to Eientei and came back.

"Youkai shouldn't be fighting on the tracks." complained Ahiru.

"You know what I do when I see anyone dueling on the tracks?" said Shiro.

"I slow down just as I see their figures. Then I whistle loudly, if that doesn't work, I'm going slow enough as to just stop."

"Thanks, I'll try that out."

Ahiru continued to take the next train to Eientei, sure enough there more youkai fighting. He took Shiro's advice and slowed down and whistled as hard as he could.

He soon stopped, but he got the attention of the two youkai, one of which was the one that yelled at Ahiru.

"Look! Its the engine that ran over my friend!" said the youkai.

"Let's use our spell cards on him!" said the other youkai.

Sure enough they used their spell cards on Ahiru. When Ahiru came back to the yard, Shiro gasped.

"What happened to you?!"

Ahiru was okay, but his paint was scratched and chipped all over.

"I took your advice, but the youkai listened all right."

"They even showed me their spell cards." finished Ahiru.

The Scarlet Controller walked over to Ahiru, with her head maid carrying a parasol over the Scarlet Controller's head.

"I heard what you did. Running over a youkai like that." she said.

"But sir, they shouldn't be fighting on the tracks." said Ahiru.

"I know. What happened to your paint?" she asked.

"They showed me their spell cards, sir."

The Scarlet Controller laughed, "That reminds me the time that I fought with Reimu, all those years ago."

"Don't worry Ahiru, I'll make sure you get a new coat of paint." she said.

"Thanks sir!" said Ahiru.

"No need to thank me, just leave the fighting to the shrine maidens next time."


	4. Akemi and the Youkai

"I heard Reimu complain about the youkai who created this incident." said Hiroto.

"My driver says her breath smells bad nowadays."

"No shrine maiden should ever be drunk like that." said Shiro.

"But who's the youkai?" asked Kiyoshi.

"I don't know, but Reimu says she likes to flip things." replied Hiroto.

"Like the signals." said Kenta.

"Or our reversers." put in Akemi.

"Or like the weight of my train." finished Ichihiro.

The engines continued to ruminate about this mysterious youkai well into the next day. Akemi was going to pull a freight train into the human village, but spotted a youkai roaming the yards, the youkai walked up to Akemi.

"Hi, I'm an inspector. Can I ride in you?" she asked.

"Sure." said Akemi, wanting to please a railway official.

She climbed into his cab. Akemi's driver and firewoman didn't trust the inspector, the only railway inspectors they knew were kappas not oni.

Akemi made his way to Hiroto's Hill, he gained speed and charged uphill. But he felt the trucks go heavy halfway up, he puffed harder and fought up hill.

"This engine is quite strong." the youkai thought to herself.

"Uh, driver." she said.

"Yes." the driver responded.

"Go full speed. These trucks will cooperate that way."

Akemi's driver glared at her, but she still opened the regulator. As Akemi reached over the top of the hill, the trucks suddenly stopped feeling like they were trying to hold back. This caused Akemi to shoot forwards and down the hill.

"Oh no, not again!" said Akemi.

His driver applied the brakes, but the youkai stopped her.

"But this train's a runaway, we need to stop!" the driver said.

"Don't worry this train will stop itself."

"Your not a real inspector, are you?"

"I'm not a real oni either, I'm a amanojaku." the youkai said.

"Are you her?" asked the driver.

"Yeah, I'm Seija."

The driver tried to push her out the cab, but she fell. The firewoman took her shovel and slammed it on Seija's head, she took another swing, causing her to fall out of the cab and fall head first onto the hard ballast, she stayed there.

"Don't worry Akemi, I got you." said the firewoman.

She applied the brakes and Akemi soon got the train under control again. His driver got back up and only complained of a headache. When they got to the station. Akemi's driver called up the Hakurei shrine and told Reimu that they found Seija.

When they got to where Seija had passed out, she was gone! Reimu screamed all sorts of obscene language before calming down.

"I want her gone! If she flips one more damn thing, I'll...AGH!" Reimu walked off to have another hard drink.

"Where could she possibly have went?" asked Akemi.

"I don't know, but with a head injury like that, she couldn't have gotten very far." said his firewoman.

She was right, Seija was just out of sight and was on the ground holding her head.

"Why did I tricked them." she said softly to herself.

She tried to crawl away but she stepped on a stick and broke it. Akemi's driver and firewoman found her and locked her in a brake van. She was sent to Eientei for her injuries, but Reimu kept a very close eye on her. She wasn't sure what to do with her, but she decided it won't be pretty.


	5. Akemi, Yuugi, and Bad Track

The youkai incident was over and with Seija Kijin caught, things went back to normal, even work on the Mayohiga extension resumed and Shiro was in charge of bringing materials and workers to the line. The temporary buffers were given special anti-theft anchors so Marisa couldn't steal them. However, in a effort to make up for lost time, some of the kappas had cut corners and assembled the track carelessly. Shiro was coming in with a train of ballast when he came over a bump in the tracks.

"Ow!" said Shiro, going over the bump.

"They should fix this section before they open up the line." said his driver.

The next day, the Mayohiga construction trains were reassigned to Akemi.

"There's a bit of bad track." warned Shiro.

"Don't worry, I got this." said Akemi, blissful in ignorance.

Akemi was approaching the badly assembled rails a little more faster that Shiro was the other day.

The rails have settled and produced more bumps, Akemi ran over the rails faster than Shiro had and derailed.

"Boke rails!" shouted Akemi.

"We can't bring the breakdown train here, the other track is all bumpy too." said Akemi's driver, upon inspection of the other track.

"How about we get an oni?" suggested the firewoman.

"I'm not sure, but we'll try."

The driver ran to the nearest signalbox and phoned Nitori to come over and to the check the tracks.

"We also need an oni, the breakdown train would probably derail on the tracks over here." she said.

Kiyoshi brought Nitori and an oni named Yuugi Hoshiguma.

Kiyoshi pulled away the trucks that were still on the tracks and Yuugi was set to work. Using a steel chain, she picked up the derailed trucks and pushed them onto the unaffected track. She then lifted up Akemi's tender and placed it back on the track, leaving Akemi himself left to pick up. Yuugi picked up the front buffer beam and hoisted Akemi onto the track. She pushed together the tender and locomotive and were reattached.

Nitori soon looked at the rails and her face turned sour.

"Its that supervisor, I knew she'd speed things too quickly."

"Isn't she the one who's infamous for cutting corners on everything?" asked Akemi's driver, who was a kappa.

"Yes. I'll see to that she's replaced." Nitori said.

Soon, the track was mended and the supervisor was fired for incompetence in the workplace. If the breakdown train was unable to be called, Yuugi would always be there to help.


	6. Epilogue

"Glad that's over." said Nitori, slumping in her seat.

"Yeah, its nice not to see Reimu drink so heavily." replied the Scarlet Controller.

Nitori was at the Scarlet Devil Mansion and the two were discussing the things that had happened over the past few weeks.

"Excuse me mistress." said the head maid Sakuya Izayoi.

"But Reimu is here to see you."

Reimu walked into the room, she was sober again after Seija had been caught and her breath smelled better because of it.

"Where did Seija go?" asked Reimu, she was very tense.

"I let Yukari watch over her." said the Scarlet Controller.

"Remilia, I told you to keep watch over her. I don't want her causing trouble in Gensokyo _again_!" Reimu was angry.

"I'm staying out of this, bye Remilia!" said Nitori, walking out of the room.

Reimu later went to Yukari's home, her therapist was there and Ran was watching over Chen.

"Yukari! Where is Seija?!"

"I banished her." said Yukari, plainly.

" _Where_ did you banish her?" asked Reimu.

"That is for me to know and you to not worry about. I sent her to a place very very far away from Gensokyo." Yukari anwsered.

Meanwhile, on an island very far away indeed. There was a new woman on the island, she was given a new identity and had the paperwork to prove it. She didn't speak the language and pretended to be mute. She even got a job, working on the island's famous railway. She'll never have to hear from anyone from Gensokyo ever again.


End file.
